Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences: American and Chinese Literature. Behind the Mask of Postmodernism: a National Failure

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / American and Chinese Literature. Behind the Mask of Postmodernism: a National Failure

Issue: Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2018 11 (6)
Authors: Castelli, Alberto
Contact information: Castelli, Alberto: Hainan University China;
Keywords: american dream; cultural revolution; maoism; post-modernity; postmodernism
Abstract: The article is less an investigation of American, and Chinese postmodern fiction from a comparative perspective, than it is an acknowledgement of postmodern fiction as a representation of national failure. Besides the well-known attributes of black humour, fantasy and dreams, fragmentation, meta-fictional elements, intertextuality, parody, radical irony, literature lavishes a violent attack on what, at different degrees, could be understood as a postmodern society. The aesthetic of social protest such as deviant sexuality, drug and alcohol addiction (America), and expressions of insanity, historical decadence (China) are to be read as the sense of tragedy binding tightly two civilisations never so similar at any stage in history
Pages: 903-926
Paper at repository of SibFU: https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/71658